Jacob Bogatin & Alternative Medicine

Jacob Bogatin claims that tea has been delivered to Japan from China in the VII century. China has appreciated tea for many centuries as a herb that could help for weariness and the herb for refining pastime. But perhaps this is rather a overestimation as this kind of cult has been found not only in Japan.
Murat Sjuko (1423-1502) was the first who stated the essence of tja-no-no (tea arts). It is him who introduced tea utensils into the Japanese culture. But until this such an issue has been neglected and attributed only to the Chinese. But this way or another it was Sjuko who after long years of practising zen has seen the latent beauty of simple tea utensils comprehended by depths of soul. In the same year when Sjuko passed away the master Dzyoo was born and he continued the tea utensils tradition.
According to J.Bogatin if we turn to the history - the most well-known person who had introduced the way of tea utensils we know up till today was Sen-no Rikju - the pupil of Dzyoo. Vabi style has been introduced when Sen-no Rikju characterized it in the words of simplicity and naturalness. The Tea Master how others called him has reduced the size of a tea room from six to two tatams and has made the low entrance about 60cm in height and width. So the one who wanted to enter the tea room had to bend mentally “having left a sword behind a threshold”. Rikju has changed tokonoma and muffled the lightning. The niche a tea room is situated just opposite to an entrance, and a roll, the stone or a flower are visible at once, adjusting staying on a certain harmony. It was Rikju who has given to the tea utensils the style of simplicity and naturalness that external shine and an intricate pattern were not in the center of attention but a background necessity. Tea for gourmets was prepared carefully and the process of scalding took many hours.

According to J.Bogatin there are many tju-nja-ju schools in Japan. The character and style of a tea ceremony depend on a kind of a meeting as well as the season of the year. At the same time the idea of tea utensils has changed in our mind a lot. Nowadays we do not use these phrase in a broad sense but have limited its meaning to just tea gifts like cups, tea-spoons and etc. whereas five centuries ago it meant the whole surroundings of tea-drinking tradition, the necessary instruments and atmosphere.